Fishy Business In Window Cleaning

Fish Window Cleaning Company has reeled in several top franchising honors, including ranking No. 182 on Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2010 Franchise 500 List and scoring No. 1 in its category. This is the 10th consecutive year the company has been on the list. Fish also has received Franchise Business Review’s 2010 Franchise Satisfaction Award, ranking No. 43 in the Top 50 Large Systems franchise organizations. In addition, the company has ranked No. 286 in the AllBusiness AllStar 2010 Franchise 300 list.

“Window cleaning is not a warm and cuddly business,” said Mike Merrick (pictured), chief executive officer. “But the beauty of it is that it’s a family-friendly business in which you work Monday through Friday, and it allows people to do the things they like to do.” The company, which has 221 franchises in 42 states, specializes in interior and exterior residential and commercial window cleaning for three stories and under. It also provides cleaning services for screens, mirrors, chandeliers, ceiling fans, gutters and skylights.

Prior to founding Fish in 1978, Merrick worked as a manager at a local bank. One day the man who cleaned the bank’s windows asked him if he would be interested in buying his window cleaning business. While Merrick wasn’t happy with what he was doing, he was concerned about buying the business because he had a mortgage and two children. “I prayed for the right thing to do,” he said. “I was up for a raise from the bank, and thought if I get a big enough raise, staying at the bank would be the answer. When that time came around, the manager told me they were cutting jobs, and mine was one of them.”

Merrick ran the business 20 years and in the back of his mind always thought franchising would be a great concept. In 1998 Merrick took his idea to a company that specialized in developing franchises and its representatives told him the concept wouldn’t work. “To open a franchise, the reality was that you had a big company backing you up or a lot of money, and I had neither,” he said. “So my wife, son and I went Tampa and helped a friend open his own franchise, and lo and behold, it worked.”

Last year, Fish opened 19 new franchises and had two territory expansions. This year, Merrick is hoping to open an additional 30 franchises and to introduce the company’s professional window cleaning solution, called Fish Foam, into the retail market. Fish’s national franchise headquarters and Merrick’s original window cleaning business are located at 200 Enchanted Parkway in Manchester. Fish Window Cleaning.